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With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. The H-2A guestworker program is a work in progress, but is looking at the possibility of considerable change in the coming months. That’s why WAFLA is working to keep seasonal employers up to date so they can best utilize the federal program.

DAN FAZIO … “The Workforce Summits are 100% H-2A program. And so, we’ve got one for Idaho, and then one for Washington, and then one for Oregon. So, we vary the topics based on the state. So, Idaho is on January 9th, Oregon is on January 10th. Idaho is over in the Nampa area, and then the Oregon one is in Clackamas. Then the next week, we’re in Washington and that’s on the 17th in Wenatchee for the Workforce Summit in Washington.”

Fazio says the questions will vary, but will also cover topics that everyone has to deal with …

DAN FAZIO … “All of them have pretty much similar topics. You know, we’re talking a little bit about the possible changes on the federal level to the H-2A program, but more about what it takes to make the program work and what it takes to make the program affordable and what it takes to get good workers year for the employers because that’s really what we’re seeing is this large labor shortage.”

Fazio says you can register for the summit nearest you at their website WAFLA dot org.

Listen tomorrow when we break down some of the specifics of the Workforce Summits.